Transcripts For SFGTV 20150521

I started contacting the city departments in november. And i kept getting put off and, finally to the middle of january about whether or not we could have that festival or not. I was about to go into a Board Meeting so i had to call somebody in a position of power to notify them that i was walking into a meeting embarrassed to say that nothing had been done. That got the ball rolling and we finally able to get this. There is just a lot of bureaucracy, when i was in the department i didnt notice and i didnt know what it took to run something. But what i just explained was a small thing we were able to get that festival going and the permits three days before the festival. So we didnt even know. But in a Perfect World someone else already said it if we had a one stop shop to be able to go to one place and get the permits as well as a class to teach the people that want to learn and put something on. Next peeker. Thank you. My name is ben lyman and i am the chairman of the california music and culture, and i am also a local businessman who is putting on a Music Festival in set. September. I want to commend everyone in this, and we think that it proves what everyone kind of already knew that Music Festivals are totally awesome flt we are looking forward as an organization to work with the city hall now to encourage responsible festivals, in the city. And to remove the frustrating bureaucratic road blocks and the fees that makes the festivals impossible and we are very much looking forward to keeping this study m mind when we negotiate with the groups who sometimes have varying degrees on whether they have the direct benefits to themselves and the city. Thank you. And the next speaker . Hi, thank you. Community Affairs Manager at the stern grove festival and i want to thank you for including us in the study. Active public spaces in the city are engines for successful cities and sustainable growth. Creating the fafrable environments for Public Engagement is vital. And the cities play a role in that and we are lucky to have a lot of great public spaces that we can activate. This year for the first time the festival took our stage on the road and we found that it was easy to do it on private land navigating the city requirements for permit and for fees was difficult. Not being able to put a cable cover on a sidewalk and having to bring in generators is another fee that we encured whereas the entire sidewalk in my building is block fromed construction, we are fortunate to have these public space and we are asked to activate these spaces but the costs are high. Just asking a few friends of mine about their experience in the city was overwhelming. Being told by dpw that it would be east tore do our events on private land made me realize that the city knows how difficult it is to do this. Another person told me that their advice was find a good soul in city hall to help you navigate. And i think that putting someone in the Entertainment Commission to navigate this would be that good soul. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, i am mary, condy with plan and entertainment and thank you for including outside lands and treasure Music Festival in this study for the outdoor concerts. We are pleased to be part of the community that produces events and we work closely with many city departments and we are also happy to be a San Francisco based company and we work with bringing in the local restaurants, and the local vendors to support our festival and we also do the hiring fares to bring in the local employees and part time jobs into the festivals. The permitting process, can be a little cumbersome but i think that by and large, our experience is that the departments that we are working with are trying to be reasonable and assist our events coming into the community especially rec and Park Department where we have a close relationship with them for outside lands. So just want to thank you for having this as part of this discussion thank you, next speaker . I am with the inaudible San Francisco and thank you for having this hearing it is way over do. Carnival for 30 years when we started there were no fees now we have to pay the Police Department the Health Department the Fire Department we have to pay for occupancy permit and now for signs for know parking signs we have to pay and you have to pay dpw. Ill mean and the list goes o we get a check from grants from the arts to support it and guess what we got to write nine different checks to the city it doesnt make sense, i think that you need to look at that and i think that the Community Events that i was born and raised with here in San Francisco, a lot of them have disappeared. Because, communitybased artist and organizations can no longer afford to do cultural events in the city and that is what makes San Francisco what it is today and i understand that the city is trying to make money but you know what . Charge the corporations that want to do the events here one fee, but you know what . You need to look at the Legacy Events in the city, pride, chinese new years and the hate street fair, june teenth, and carnival and you know make those Legacy Events of the city and make them part of the city budget and dont penalize us for preserving our cultural traditions because this is what you are doing you are making us pay if you speak to every organization as it has been doing cultural events for the last four decades, they will tell you that the pain that we go through every year trying to raise money on good years when the economy is good we get sponsors when the economy is bad all of the sponsors disappear. They dont exist and i think that having one system where you can just go and get one stop shopping is a perfect thing to do thank you. How much what do pay total in fees to the city for carnival . Approximately . Okay, so we have 5,000 to the Police Department there is another 4,000 to the Health Department, and another 3800 to the Fire Department, the occupancy permit was 140 last year and went up to 900 this year and the signs the no parking signs that we never had to pay for, this year we have to pay 1800, and then we have to pay, scott for that permit. And the Entertainment Commission waived the fee this year and last year for us. But that is another fee how much is that fee . 540. And then you got to pay dpw, depending on what that bill comes out to every year. So almost, 20,000. Yeah, over. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And that is all of the other events and pride and everybody else. Thank you. Good morning, my name is steven and i am the arts advocate and the Community Event producer for burning man andvy been organizizing events in the San Francisco for close to 19 years now. And i would like to say that we enjoy very warm relations with all of the public agencies involved and we have built the Close Relationships over time with them, but if you dont help those relationships in that trust it is difficult for a new, nonprofit or an Arts Organization to be able to work the way through the process, right now with increasing housing density, and sound becoming more and more of an issue throughout the city i am seeing that it is harder and harder for events including ourselves to organize our street gathering without some kind of pressure, locally. And so it is becoming less appealing in a lot of ways and there is a quieting down that is happening as well in the city. And i would really welcome an aappropriate to working with the affairs, especially the nonprofit events that are trying to do it in a Community Building way and do have an impact while we are increasing the Cultural Diversity and so i would like to throw out the idea for extra special support for gathers that are not public oriented Public Events and also for the simplifying of the process and just generally a tone to support new street fares and events because the conditions are getting pretty hostile right now. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hello, my name is brad olsen and i want to thank supervisor weiner for sponsoring this study sxim the founder and event producer of the Howard Street fair which started out as a small block party 16 years ago, and we were the oldest electronic Music Festival in the west coast. Certainly in San Francisco. And it has grown and we were at the point where we are at capacity for the last three years. I have asked scott the last two years to expand this event in to just one more intersection, where we are only allowed the Second Street intersection. This year i was told if your event is too big, why dont you move to the palace, why dont you move to treasure island. You really want us to leave . You want us to go away . We give the entertainment for 20,000 people and this is an event like so many events that you just heard of that add to the cultural fabric of San Francisco. And once you lose them, they are gone, fortunately for us, swre been successful and we have enough to weather some of these increasing fees but, if we were to start out today, it would not be possible, i get asked by people in new york city in chicago, and in la, even in brazil how can we do a fair in our cities and the answer is i hope that you have a big budget because the way that it is here you have to come in with quite a bit of money and as the other speakers have noticed, if we could stream line the process there is a way to bring the fees down and if we can work with you as partners i think that it would greatly help us believe that what we are doing is something good for the city and recognized by you, thank you. And if i could ask you the same question, what do you pay . Total in the city in fees. I think that carnival is getting off easy 5,000, tb and our tbs for plus two is over 10,000. And so our fees are up towards of 30,000 just to the city agencies alone. Our operating budget is getting close to 6 figures. So this is one day, i mean that we have 6 hours in one day to make over 6 figures to match our budget and so it is challenging. Thank you. Is there any additional Public Comment . Seeing none, mr. Chairman may we close the Public Comment . Okay. Public comment is closed. Could i ask you if you know an estimate of what fulson estimated fees are to the city i know that you dont have a spread sheet in front of you, more or less. Right. I have actually been tracking our police costs over the years and the police alone, we do two. For fulsom. So for both of them it is over 30,000 just for the police. And you know, what is challenging is i think that at one point kind of reflecting of howard said that we were forced to expand the smaller street fair because it was becoming unsafe and we were told that there were two many people and that the people would come to round and leave. And we have to respond in a Public Safety measure, and the only way to do that was to expand, when we expanded we were hit with new 10 b costs which increased our bill, for just the smaller street fair. And so, just focusing on fulson. Sure. Do you have an estimate for what the total city fees are everything . The total city fees, no i couldnt give you that estimate, although i can follow up in an email. Okay. Thank you. Miss kane could you come up . I think that what might be or maybe useful is to try to figure out what these festivals are paying total. To the city. And in fees. And i dont know if that is possible to send out a survey to or maybe the city could and i think that we are getting the fees and the department should be able to do that. It might be i think that it would be interesting to know what the city is receiving in fees from all of these festivals, and i agree that there is a big difference between when you have an oricale world or even an outside lands where you have an outside entity that is putting on a huge event as opposed to these more Community Driven events that are nonprofit. And so do you, is that something that maybe we could look into to try to figure out what is the city getting from these events . Sure. I mean that it is easy to do. Trying to make a distinction between ticketed verses free event and that income stream does not exist for the folks that and many of the ones that spoke today dont charge fees, and sell tickets. But, you know i am happy to do that and we know now based on mr. Eagans report what the value is in a lot of other ways, i can find out what the cost is, and i want to reiterate as well that while the complain about how much it cost for police or fire and i know that everybody is appreciative of the service that they get and i think that part of the issue as well is that it consistency and the timeliness and i know, commissioner frost spoke about achieving a permit, three days before an event which is not acceptable when you are trying to budget year to year. So, i mean, i am happy to assist with the request for sure, with how much the city is getting in fees. But, that, and the end result might be a shrug to the extent that we know that it is a lot and we now know what the value is and so maybe we ask additionally for what else can be done. And i think that it is not a shrug, if we know how much that it is, we can figure out is there a way for us to defray those costs . Sure. I think that it is outrageous and the lack of predictbility and that there are new random requirements and fees that are put on, and i dont think that, you know, the no, and there should not be a fee for putting up a no parking signs and the whole, barricade issue and it is just like one thing after another and sometimes it seems like some of the departments are just looking for ways to generate more fees. And so i, i just dont think that it is appropriate to level the fees that we are charging on these events to the smaller, you know the Community Based events in particular. So, yeah, i would like to maybe put together that data for the nonticketed. Sure. Thank you. Thanks. And so, colleagues, thanks, thanks for hearing this, item today and you know i think that it is clear that these events are really important for the city, culturally and economically, and i think that it is also clear that the city is not doing enough and i agree that i do believe that the city agencies want these events to happen to succeed and there is some really terrific people in the City Government who are working to help make these events succeed and so this is not about the city not caring, it is about the way that we structure the system where there are too many departments that are involved or too many fees, involved, and there is not enough centralized coordination, and i mean that you go through the scott process to get your street closure which is supposed to be the departments working together and after that permit you have a bunch of individual departments to deal with who can charge fees and put different requirements on. And so it is not centralized enough and i would like to see first of all, a we used to have a staff position, someone who is responsibility it was to really provide that kind of portal and the help and for the Entertainment Commission for the street festivals and i think that it makes sense to reentait that position so that the people who have existing fairs or starting up a fair have someone that they can go to who understands how these things work. And can tell you the path and help you out, and help you when you are having permitting issues and so forth. I would like to see better centralization, and where, and as i think that someone called it a one stop shop for permits and i know that say real challenge and we still have not really achieved those businesses who have to go to multiple place and pay things and i dont understand why that has been fully centralized and i think that this should be fully centralized and i think that the city should be providing a level of Financial Support to the permit cost to defray and it is just does not make sense to especially for the events that we are supporting financially and have to turn around and pay us back with permits fees and then in terms of i know that we had issues of events where the people move into the neighborhood and complain about the noise. I know that we recently passed that the board under the leadership of breed which i cosponsored and around the place of entertainment and live music and requiring disclosure to people and that would be interesting to know if that will be expanded to the outdoor events, and that is trickier because it is clear where those permits are. It seems that we should be addressing this issue especially in the south market where we have more and more housing being built and the people move in and then the shop that there are there one day a year outside of the house and they get very upset. We will explore some of those issues and interested to know what the data is around the permit fees and i want to thank, ted and the Controllers Office for putting together a useful report and to the Entertainment Commission and everyone who helped to engage the community and get the surveys out there and the good data and i think that this is a long lasting policy tool that will help us achieve positive change and so w that, chairman i notice that supervisor mar and tang are on the roster. Yes, mar . Yeah. Thank you. Supervisor weiner for the report. I wanted to say that it is eye opening that people spend 330 per person even outside of eat event not just at the event but hopefully with the Small Business and Community Businesses that are benefiting as well. I think that ted also identified the Food Consumption as the cultural event and the nonprofit and the big forprofit events is pulling the people together and it is benefiting a lot of our economy and businesses as well and i wanted to say too, that i heard very loudly from some of the public speakers to that, the hardship on smaller nonprofits and smaller producers of cultural events are a big burden and i want to try to make sure that we are not only helping the larger events, that i know that the study focused on but also, smaller as mr. Hernandez called them legacy event, and so how we define it is important. And i also wanted to say too that i think that staffing if the Entertainment Commission has additional staffing my hope is that it helps as the Entertainment Commissioners themselves are dealing with the conflicts between the neighbors that the staffing also addresses some of those neighborhood concerns that supervisor weiner brought up. With the recent event that was at civic center the Asian Heritage and i know that they scaled down this year and this tremendous challenges with capacity but hopefully the staffing within the Entertainment Commission could help struggling festivals and the smaller no fn profits and others address the different needs and as mr. Steven mentioned i think that the changing conditions in the city, with density and noise and other things and hopefully the Entertainment Commission can be looking at ways to insure that the neighborhoods are or have their voices heard and also that we are as a city, we are benefiting for so much amazing cultural and arts events in our city thank you so much to supervisor weiner for opening up this conversation and i know that there are a lot of conversation and thank you for testifying as well. Supervisor tang. Thank you i just wanted to add on to supervisor mars comments about the smaller street fair type of events, and our office for example this year we are going to be taking over the hosting of two Community Events in our district the auto moon, and well as the sunset xhunlt festival and that is because many of our organizations strug toll try to put these events on but our comment is interested in having them continue. Our office is going through and knowing how to navigate the system and applying for the permit and we are really truly understanding the difficulties and that is why we are doing it i cannot imagine having a nonprofit or one person trying to put these events on and hosting them. So certainly understand your challenges, and looking for ward to working with supervisor weiner and the rest of the colleagues to try to make it easier for all of you because we do certainly enjoy all of the events that are happen ining San Francisco and it makes it you know, why our city is so great. Thank you for all that you do. Thanks, supervisor tang and just before kicking back over to close out the hearing i just want to also, thank you everyone for coming out today and all of the public speakers and the commissioners and i share my comments and the thoughts of my colleagues about making this a stream line process for those putting on events i am a big belief their this adds to the quality of life and makes this an exciting place to live and for all of the neighborhood issues that we have and i worked with the number of you that are here and you know, this is part of living in a city and this is part of really making our city incredibly exciting and dynamic place to live and i love it and the attention to this process. And i look forward to working together on it. Supervisor weiner . Thank you, for the support. And okay, so i would request that the Committee File this item, and we will continue working and moving forward. All right. I will make that motion on behalf of weiner to file this. We have motion by tang and take that without objection. Thank you. We are going to move on to item four. Ordinance amending the health code to retro actively increase the patient rates and charged for concern Mental Health services delivered from july 1, 2014, through june 30, 2016. Good morning, the department of Public Health we are requesting approval of the health rates and the reason is that the current rates are below our medical reimbursement rates and so we want to maximize the amount that we are reimbursed if you have questions. Thank you. Why dont we move on to mr. Roses report. Mr. Chairman will you give me one why dont we move on to Public Comment, for item four . Anybody wish to comment on this item . Okay tha, was quick. We will close Public Comment. Mr. Rose, i think that i bought you about 15 seconds. Mr. Chairman and supervisor tang on page 8 of our report, we note that as shown in the table three, the proposed ordinance will result in additional estimated reimbursements of 108,191 and we recommend that you approve this. Thank you, if no questions send it forward . All right. Through the chair, and so i think that it would be great for us to be able to be reimbursed up to the maximum amount that we can get, i like to make a motion to forward out the ordinance to a positive recommendation to the full board. We have a motion of supervisor board. And the motion is passed. And i want to note that supervisor mar was absent for this vote. Okay. Clerk could you call item five . Ordinance amending ordinance, 10714, for a state revolving loans, for the full amount nottoexceed, 819 million to besinger finance the costs of various projects benefiting the waste water enterprise. Okay. Thank you. Welcome back. Hello, supervisors charles with the cfo in the sfpuc and this item before you today is related to the Capitol Program for the waste water enterprise and it, and it requests your consideration for expand already existing authorizations to include the state resolving fund loan program. And which has the opportunity to afford quite a bit of savings for our waste water rate payers as we begin to rebuild our sewer system over the next 20 or so years and if you like i have a few slides that i can walk you through if that is helpful. Or i could take